Renewing my passport

I just renewed my passport, after realizing it had long expired.
Renewing passports has now been made a lot more convenient.
If you pay around P1,600, you can commission a private courier to facilitate the renewal process.
The documents will be fetched by the courier either in your office or home, and the new passport will be delivered to wherever you want them delivered.
However, I renewed my passport the traditional way, which was to go to the Department of Foreign Affairs at Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.
Here is how to renew a passport the traditional way.
Proceed and enter Gate No. 2 of the DFA compound.
You will read a sign which says "application starts here" pointing to the direction of the DFA basketball court.
You should be ready with the expired passport, a filled up application form with two passport size pictures. Another requirement is the photocopies of pages one and two, the last page and the page containing the last departure of the expired passport.
The first thing is to have the application verified. Thre are two windows attending to this.
The application will be stamped indicating that it has already been verified.
Then you proceed to the building accross, where the application papers will once again be scrutinized to ensure the integrity of the data indicated in the application.
There are so many counters so the queing will not take long.
Thereafter, the person at the counter will punch the expired passport before returning it, to indicate that it is no longer usable.
Then the person at the counter will issue sort of an invoice or a receipt or claim paper, which will have to be brought to the cashier for payment.
The payment if you personally renew the passport is only P500. If you need it immediately, there is a rush payment of P750.
If you want the renewed passpoprt delivered, the private couriers will deliver it for a fee of P180 per passport.
If you don't want to pay delilvery fees, you can just come back on the date designated to claim the new passport which takes about ten days.
If you don't want to experience the hassles of having to go to the DFA to renew your passport, just avail of the services of the private courier services.

Modus Operandi of petty thieves

There is an effective modus operandi executed by petty thieves in Dumaguete City.

By petty theft we mean snatchers, pick pockets.

The modus operandi is to take undue advantage of the constitutional guarantee to an accused of speedy trial.

According to our sources, these local petty thieves like snatchers and pick-pockets target visitors and transients temporarily staying in Dumaguete City.

For instance there are invitation games, professional convention hostyed by various groups in Dumaguete City.

It is during these activities that the thieves have a heyday.

There is a sensible reason why local thieves operating in Dumaguete target the visitors.

The reason is that if they get caught, chances are great that the petty criminals get a criminal conviction.

The victims, being merely visitors and trancients, temporarily staying in Dumaguete will not bother to attend the court proceedings agasint the apprehended snatchers.

It makes a lot of sense for the criminal.

By victimizing visitors to the city, if ever the criminal are caught and a formal complaint is lodged, the case will not see any conviction.

This is because not long after filing the complaint- that is if the visiting victim will press charges--- the complainant will have to leave town and return home.

When this happens, there will not longer be any principal witness against the accused.

Without the testimony of hte victim, there is a slim chance that the accused will get a conviction.

It is more likely that the case will have to be dismissed for lack of evidence, or failure to prosecute.

Our source said that if ever the criminals are caught, they just stay in jail and turn down bail (to save money) and wait for their complaining victim to leave.

Our source said that during scheduled hearing, the accused would always ask: "Is the complainant present?"

It is likely that eventually, the complaining victim will not pursue the case as he or she shall have left the city already.

After that, the accused will invoke their right to speedy trial.

As to how these snatchers and pickpockets were able to devise such a brilliant legal strategy is beyond us.

I don't suppose any lawyer gave such an advise to the criminals (to target visitors).

I would rather think it was devised through sheer experience in their adventures with the legal system.

Ling Ling in Manila

My classmate since kinder school days at Silliman, Jennifer Ling Ling Jornales-Cinco came home from Virginia for a month long vacation.

She came with her family, her husband Jun Jun Cinco a nurse, and son RJ.

Ling Ling treated us for dinner at the Golf club of Camp Aguinaldo where she was staying.
Her sister Jo Anne is based in Camp Aguinaldo with her husband who is an officer in the Armed Forces.

Present at the dinner were Bobord and wife Marsha, Alex Abregana and me and my wife Ruby and son Joshua.

Every balikbayan always says if only the compensation here was sufficient, they would prefer to stay in the Philippines.

Ling Ling said that if you have a good paying job here, better stay because it is not that easy abroad.

Ling ling is an old classmate. I think we were classmates in kindergarter at Silliman.

We were classmate in the elemntary school days, high school and even in college also at Silliman, at the College of Business Administration.

She has a teenage son RJ who is in the second year high school equivalent.

She hails from Canlaon City, north of Negros Oriental, where the famous Canlaon Volcano sits.

However, I think her family skipped Canlaon City because their mother is based here in Manila.

Her husband meanwhile comes from Leyte province.

Superman returns

It was more than twenty years ago that I first encountered on the silver screen the comic book hero Superman which starred Christopher Reeves.

In 1983 Supreman the movie, hit the local box office in Dumaguete City. It was an instant hit, with Dumaguetetenos flocked to Ever theatre at the Escolta.

Now, two decades after, Supreman returns and it is now my son who is looking forward to watching it, this time at the IMAX at the newly SM Mall of Asia.

I am excited as well, as this would be the first time I would watch a movie at IMAX

I am looking forward to seeing a film with hi-tech effects, better than its earlier versions.

Last Thursday, we hoped to have watched Supreman. To our dismay, all seats have already been taken for the week.
The ticket we bought was for the Monday screening.

It was a long que at the ticket counters, as a lot of people were also buying tickets for later showings.

We contented ourselves with much of the mechandising activities outside the IMAX.

There were Supreman t-shirts, costumes, lots of memorabilia, chocolates being sold at the different kiosks just outside the moviehouse.

The Rise of North Cotabato

One of the fastest-rising provinces in the country is the former war-ravaged province of North Cotabato.

From being one of the five poorest provinces in the country, North Cotabato is now ranked number twenty nine in terms of economic strength, a meteoric rise that spanned in just eight years.

The man responsible for the economic boom of North Cotabato is a diminutive but brave Governor Emmanuel "Manny" Pinol, a former journalist and active sports commentator.

"Not long ago, North Cotabato has been known as a garbage dump. In this province you witness endless war between government troops and all types of rebels" Pinol said.

It was not long ago that North Cotabato was the haven of practically all kinds of heinous crimes, ranging from kidnapping, ambuscades, extortion, murder---- you name it, Pinol added.

But now, Pinol said he is proud to showcase North Cotabato was one of the fastest growing economy in the south.

Despite being surrounded by rebel camps of the Moro Islamic Libereation Front (MILF), peace has reigned over the province.

The only way to establish lasting peace is to eradicate poverty and want.

Even a thousand peace agreements will not guarantee cessation of hostilities, if the stomach is hungry.

That is why, Pinol explained, we will boost the province economy and make the lives of our constituents better.

This is the only way peace can be achieved, Pinol stressed.

Pinol disdains the centralized form of governmennt, saying this has contributed largely to the economic retrogession of many provinces in Mindanao.

People in imperial Manila have no idea on how to place our province on the path to progress. We have to chart our own destiny, Pinol maintains.

That is why he said he has adopted simple formula to remove North Cotabato from the list of poor provinces.

Pinol emphasized that his province has adopted the policy of re-focused agrciulture.

North Cotabato concentrates globally marketable agriculture.

We have surveyed the most globally marketable agricultural products, and we concentrate on these, Pinol said.

Now, North Cotabato is one of the largest producers of banana, focusing on the Lakatan variety. Pinol reported that

North Cotabato ships out more than a million tons of banana every week.

Another major production of North Cotabato is rubber.

Governor Pinbol said he is making a national advocacy for the propagation of rubber.

These are the money-making ventures in agriculture, not the planting of rice, corn and tomatoes, Pinol stressed.

Pinol said he has focused on rural and countryside development by building farm to market roads so that the farmers will no longer be burdened of the difficulty of selling their produce.

Pinol also said he believes in investing in education of the youth, as they will become the leaders of the future.

An educated community will deter bloody conflicts, he explained.

That is why the province has adopted a program of granting scholarships to talented children from North Cotabato, and sending them to top schools.

After these children graduate, they will hopefully return and apply what they have learned, and become leaders in their respective home communities.

Kidapawan City is the capital of North Cotabato.

It is the haven of so many types of fruits like Rambutan, Pomelo, Durian, due mainly to the favorable climate which is conducive to growing fruits.

The province of North Cotabato is a success story that continues to unfold, Pinonl said.

He spoke recently before provincial newsmen and shared his story on how North Cotabato rose from the ashes of poverty.

He delivered a power point presentation, detailing how in eight years, North Cotabato has become the one of the center of economic growths not only in Mindanao but the entire country .

Also accompanying the governor was the runner up in the Miss Earth-Air, Miss Nadia Dela Cruz, who hails from North Cotabato.

I brought her along to show that not everyone in North Cotabato is short, Pinol said.